Tony Z wrote:Was talking to a good mate yesterday that has just come back from a hog hunt around the Georgetown district. Lots of pigs about where he got just on fifty over three days putting around on a quad on his own. He used a pair of 308s, one for day shooting and another set up with a thermal sight.
Now this is where it gets interesting. I asked what loads he used and he said Hornady factory offering with the 155 grain BTHP. Now Amaxes i have read about as being a good pill that opens up well at longer ranges and kills quite effectively. But a HPBT match bullet? He said nothing took a step, all bang flop at ranges from 30 to 200 yards and all sizes from porkers to decent boars.
I know that Hornady uses AMP jackets in the Amax and current ELD Match bullets, and i assume something other than that in the ELDX range, but they list the same AMP jacket in their match BTHP line.
Has anyone dissected the current line of Hornady bullets to see the difference or actually used these bullets on animals? The reason i ask is i have a swag of Hornady 168 HPBT match bullets sitting idle that may be worth throwing at hogs instead of patterns on paper targets. I've never been one to use match pills on game, but old mate swears by his 155 grain factory bullet.
My young bloke was running 175 gr eldxs in his 28 Nosler. In his words, they were shit He just stole my last box of M’s. Apparently they are the shiz on sambar.
I spent a bit of time googling Amaxes, ELDs and HPBTs and the concensus is very mixed. Some say brilliant, others say crap. A lot of the feedback seemed to specifically talk of range or 2600 fps in a 308. Seems many said you had to be below 2600 fps or the bullet jackets fragmented on the surface where you watched the once in a lifetime stag run off to die many postcodes away. Then others said you had to be above 1900 fps or the bullets penciled through. Anyway all too confusing for my little brain so i will stick to SSTs and TSXes for hunting and the 168 match bullets will continue gathering dust.
Oh, one guy posted that he removed the polymer tips from ELDs and had good results. Taking a 0.550 BC bullet back to 0.200 BC seems just a little counterproductive for my mind.
